St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-12
THE COMING OF CHRIST.
Father Gibbons breaches an Eff
fectiye Sermon in the Cathe-
1ral

Father Gibbons breaches an Eff
fectiye Sermon in the Cathe-
dral.
Father Fitzpatrick celebrated high
mass at the cathedral yesterday, being
assisted by Fathers Stanley and Glib
bOnS.
The sermon was preached by Father
Gibbons, who spoke as follows: This
is the third Sunday of Advent. Advent
means the coming of our Lord. In the
Scriptures we read of various cOmingS
Ct Christ. 1t speaks of His coming into
the world when He became man; it
also tells us of Christ's coming at the
death Of each individual, and at the end
of the world. But there is still another
coming, an invisible coming, when God
visits man with His grace. This is
most important coming to us, for
what will it profit US if the
world is redeemed and the
fruits of the redemption are not applied
to us. Those fruits are applied TO lis
by divine grace. The season of Advent
has not alone been set aside by the
church that we may prepare ourselves
to celebrate the festival of the nativity
of Christ, but also that we might pre-
pare ourselves for the coming into our
souls of His divine grace. Just before
His coming, God sent a fOrerunner,
John the Baptist, among the people to
prepare them for the acceptance of His
divine grace. And when the Levites,
who were sent by the Jews, came to
John and said to him: ''Wh0 art thou,
that we may give an answer to them
that sent uS?" John answered them,
Saying: Il am the voice of one crying
i'll the wilderness; Make straight the
way of the Lord"
2ItThis preparation, referred to, consists
sin being directly opposed to one
tile soul at the same time. When the
Baptist was preparing the way of our
Lord he taught two simple truths, viz:
The necessity of penance and the near
approach of the Kingdom of God. And
it is these two truths that the church
wishes to impress OH our minds during
Advent. The Baptist, in his preaching,
told the pc Ople that they must do pen
ance, else the anger of God would fall
on them. Christ himself also taught
penance, and said: ''Uniess We do pen
ance ye will all likewise perish" st.
Peter also speaks of the Importance of
penance. In the present time the same
necessity exists. Sin is just as rife to-
day as it was in Christ's time, and God
has ordained that no sin, however small,
can be forgiven without repentance. 1t
is of the creates moment, then, for
us to know what penance is.
Penance is virtue, also sacrament.
As virtue it is often calledrepentance.
1t consists of two parts, one deteSta-
ton of sin and the other firm reSolu-
ton to sin no more. Penance as virtue
is useless unless it comes from the
heart. When we sin it is not the various
members of the body that sin, but the
soul that animates them: therefore, re-
pentance must have its seat in the soul.
We must he sorry for our sins. not only
on account of natural motives, but on
account of supernatural motives. The
grace of God must prompt lis. This sOr-
row must extend to all the mortal sins,
not to any one class of sins-in fact to
all sins that tend to separate us from
God. Our SOrrrw must be sovereign
and intense, because we have of
Tended, by our transgressiOns.
the Sovereign Being. The mere
outward manifestations of sorrow
are useless. 1t is not necessary that we
pine and grieye over our sins as over
the dead; but it is necessary TO have
real and sincere repentance for our sins.
This is one of the truths taught by the
Baptist. But he did not mean sorrow
that is expressed by mere external ac-
ton or the muttering of words. Our
sorrow should be from the heart, ac-
companied by firm purpose TO amend
our lives.
A WONDER.
1t can be easily understood how men
can sin, but how they can remain in sin
when it lies within their power to
cleanse themselves from SinfulneSS is
difficult to understand. One of the
mysteries of God is His pardoning of
sin. Anyone can obtain pardon, pro-
viding ne desires it. 1t lies within the
reach of all. and it is great 0ffense
to remain away from God. We
know not the hour we may